Making a Homemade Home – lalinsocalhttps://lalinsocal.com
stitching every chance I get. . .
Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:36:52 +0000 en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/a2e463d049aee8931f5273a324ba8f1c?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngMaking a Homemade Home – lalinsocalhttps://lalinsocal.com
swiped from Craftsy. . .https://lalinsocal.com/2015/01/25/swiped-from-craftsy/
https://lalinsocal.com/2015/01/25/swiped-from-craftsy/#commentsMon, 26 Jan 2015 00:10:05 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=890How I have tortured my IG friends with photos of these placemats! I shamelessly stole the idea from Craftsy – using the same Kaffe Fassett cool range millefiori fabric, the same pattern layout. But rather than a QAYG, I actually built the quilt sandwich – I’m hoping to become more comfortable FMQ and this was an awesome way to practice and have something useful, and might I add pretty as well

I also successfully deployed and used the generic FMQ foot from Leah Day.

You see my Juki foot was dragging along my quilt sandwiches each time I tried FMQ – I couldn’t get any flow and just got more frustrated with each attempt. An awesome IGer forwarded me to this post from Leah Day over at The Free Motion Quilting Project. I wasn’t ready to break the foot that came with my Juki – so I ordered the generic foot and have been happily practicing my FMQ!

The last mat, sitting there all pretty and inviting:

So now that those have been successfully deployed – we’ll hopefully get this quilted today:

#stashbee Hive 10 2014 quilt

So I’m actually standing while I quilt this. . .am I the only one? Maybe I’ll add some squats and we can add this as a #sweatandsew

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2015/01/25/swiped-from-craftsy/feed/8lalinsocalC-c-c-cold in SOCal. . .https://lalinsocal.com/2014/12/31/c-c-c-cold-in-socal/
https://lalinsocal.com/2014/12/31/c-c-c-cold-in-socal/#commentsWed, 31 Dec 2014 20:30:53 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=875Most of North America is busy rolling their eyes at us, but it seems winter has reached glorious SOCal! This jaded Canadian is shivering and wondering exactly who forgot to pay their sunshine tax this month?

Just in time I managed to finish my final finish for 2014 – tah-dah!

Oh I do love this little mat and I will be making a couple more, originally it was for the kitchen but I’ll need one a little larger for in there.

Now, I really enjoy all aspects of the quilt making process. . .that first whiff of inspiration, the fabric selection, pressing, cutting, sewing, quilting.

But to sit at the end of that journey with a quilt on your lap, hand stitching that beautiful binding. . .all cozy and snuggled. Brings a smile to my face just thinking about it

Alas, my joins weren’t always the cleanest. It was hit and miss, sometimes with more miss than I would like to report. Even to the point of unpicking one or two when the askew turned to ‘bloody ‘ell, straighten that mess, eh?’

Faced with the task of making some binding for my newest ‘almost’ finish, I had the chore of replacing the washi tape I use as a guide to line up with the needle, well to do this I have the needle in the needle-down position.

That’s when a little light bulb went off – I butted the edge of my join up against the needle, lined up the back with my newly applied washi tape. . .

and voila. . .perfect, clean join.

well duh!

<smack on forehead followed by sheepish grin>

Let’s get this binding finished then, eh? g’night!

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2014/12/14/ah-ha/feed/6lalinsocalit always starts with the wantsies. . .https://lalinsocal.com/2014/02/14/it-always-starts-with-the-wantsies/
https://lalinsocal.com/2014/02/14/it-always-starts-with-the-wantsies/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 16:00:29 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=830when i get the wantsies, I get ’em bad. Over in Insta-world I noticed some slippers popping up. . .a little stalking and googling later I found this was a pattern by Ayumi Takahashi and in an old issue of Stitch Magazine (Summer 2011). A quick payment of $3.99 and a week later the magazine was at my door – I’m old school, I still like the glossy magazine in my hands or you can buy the pattern here.

aren’t they pretty?

I decided the only deviation from the pattern would be the addition of minky fabric for the inside. I split up a candy pack of Zen Chic and added a border for any of the overspill on the templates.

A bit of a hic-up, my machine did not like sewing through the slipper gripper, especially with two layers of batting and one of minky. Made for a bulky and sticky sandwich to quilt.

Slowly but surely won that race and we got it done, even managed to sew the top on – but there was no way my machine and I were going to be able to sew on the binding and remain friends.

Not that I didn’t try – 20 minutes, half an inch in distance sewn and 5 machine re-threads later – I gave up. I’m nothing if not determined, so out came the glue.

after a picture post on Flickr and some complaining, the fabulous Linda Miller suggested I use a sheet of paper to help slide and sew – yes! It worked! No glamour shot of the paper in action, but a pre-binding completion shot should finish us up. . .

another two going out this week and then I need to get cracking for March’s two birthdays – fun!

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2014/02/14/it-always-starts-with-the-wantsies/feed/7lalinsocalthe Wantsies!https://lalinsocal.com/2013/10/25/the-wantsies/
https://lalinsocal.com/2013/10/25/the-wantsies/#commentsFri, 25 Oct 2013 18:30:31 +0000http://lalinsocal.wordpress.com/?p=695When I saw these gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn Pincushions by Red Pepper Quilts, my skin tingled with the worst case of the wantsies. . .but at $29 plus shipping from the land of Oz, nuh-uh! Totally worth it, but way out of my budget – that sigh you hear is my husband, that sound is relief. . .

So I felt sorry for myself for about a minute and a half, then pulled out my Liberty stash and started sorting and pressing, really not a bad way to spend Sesame Street time

Sorting and pressing some Liberty scraps. . .

I sewed, then I slashed, then sewed and again slashed. I didn’t press my seams in any set order and the bulk was starting to give my machine a rough time. I took it slow, nice that I am learning my cues from my machine. . .

sewed. . .slashed. . .sewed. . .

Then I framed my Liberty with a little Bonnie and Camille, hand quilted a little perle cotton and added a heart!

Nipper1’s was completed first and then hidden so I could start/finish Nipper2’s. Cutting the fabric for both at the beginning was a pain – but the best decision!

I would never have wanted to go through all that cutting again. . .and sewing the second time round went by in no time.

the final pinning. . .

This pattern was also a great ‘learning my machine’ experience – I was able to hotswap (see I am a geek) the sewing feet.

Apart from the muslin pillow form being a real pain to sew (is this just the nature of muslin, or was I doing something wrong?) this was a fun pattern, a little fiddly because of the stuffed petals and then trying to sew around everything – but I think worth it!

We might have to rename it to the Nabi-Time pillow :0

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/24/daisy-naptime-pillows-check/feed/6lalinsocalFlickr community rocks!https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/11/flickr-community-rocks/
https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/11/flickr-community-rocks/#commentsThu, 11 Jul 2013 15:45:32 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=581As I’m working on my Amy Butler Daisy Pillow – yup, that’s the information I was able to hold back for 3 whole days, fyi. . .I can’t keep a secret, especially if you say “this is a secret”. . .anyway in the directions it mentions to fill the petals with fiberfill “filling it firmly for a softness that’s pleasing”

hmmmm, okay. . .Oy, you in the back, behave yourself – this is a clean blog!

Now to be fair, I’m not finding fault in the instructions at all, in fact that is good direction. But I was still hoping for more info., like if you over stuff what will happen vs. if you under stuff and how the petals held up over time.

You know, crystal ball kinda stuff.

So I took to Flickr, typed in “Amy Butler Daisy Pillow”, a bunch of images popped up and a number of them were right on the money. I won’t post those pictures here as I don’t have the owners’ permission – but I was able to pop a quick question in each comment field and went back to stuffing the petals with fiberfill while trying to determine the firm softness that is most pleasing.

I depleted my 12oz bag of fiberfill with one petal to go, placed an online order and crawled, yawned and stretched my way up the stairs.

By the following morning I had an answer, by midday another wonderful Flickr member chose to take the time and share some info., one of those users posted the pillow back in 2008 the little man is now 7 and the pillow is still being used!

Are the answers the same, nope – not even close – but the information is shared and I feel a little more confident in my sewing adventure – thank you Flickr users, friends and acquaintances. you Rock!

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/11/flickr-community-rocks/feed/5lalinsocalpreparing for some sewing. . .https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/09/preparing-for-some-sewing/
https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/09/preparing-for-some-sewing/#commentsTue, 09 Jul 2013 18:05:13 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=568I have to admit it. . .I must finally give it up. . .there is a part to this sewing/quilting that I don’t like.

pinning. . .

PINNING!

Ugh. I mean really, UGH! I’ll cheat by placing 3 pins – start, middle and end – and then fill in with the clips. Unless the fabric is super fiddly and starch isn’t helping.

minimalist pinning

it must all stem from my childhood. . .as a child I would spend summer break with my grandparents and during those months my grandmother would sew me up some new clothes – already sounds terribly tragic, eh? The hours (probably only minutes) that I would spend standing deathly still just waiting for my grandmother’s cold fingers to jab me with another pin – torture!

This morning as I was trying to mentally prepare myself for the pinning task at hand – if I try to sew during the day:

Nipper2 helping momma. . .

it draws a little too much attention from Nipper2 these days – so fabric prep is the task during the day. While procrastinating, I read this wonderful blog post from Abigail at While she Naps.

Just the kick in the butt I need. . .now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot more pinning to do. . .

. . .is it just me? or do you dread the pinning as well?

]]>https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/09/preparing-for-some-sewing/feed/9lalinsocalauditioning threads. . .https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/08/auditioning-threads/
https://lalinsocal.com/2013/07/08/auditioning-threads/#commentsMon, 08 Jul 2013 17:45:51 +0000http://lalinsocal.com/?p=564it took me 4 days to cut this lot out. Nope, wasn’t a particularly difficult pattern at all – let’s just say momma has a LOT of help that and it being the summer, the nippers have managed to push bedtime way past winter’s 6pm. Oh, those were the days. . .

Micheal Miller, Maze.

I also knew I better cut both at the same time, or I may not get around to making the second one in a timely fashion. . .

They are in use, but I’ll spare you a shot of our forever cluttered kitchen table. . .I’m actually more than a little embarrassed to let you see the place of honor the popcorn maker has

Here’s a little action shot

Nipper size!

And one more. . .

Momma and Dada size

The binding was soooo easy. I used a few strips of Kate Spain’s Cuzco from a jelly roll, sewed ’em together, ironed in half and voila – easy peasy single fold binding!

Kate Spain jelly roll binding!

I used this wonderful youtube tutorial, and was thrilled to learn I could easily sew the back of my binding with my machine by using the stitch in the ditch method. I must admit, my stitch in the ditch needs some practice (maybe more patience) but it’ll hold up to meals and the washing machine.